Somalia will lose $500 million this year as its livestock misses out on Hajj to Saudi Arabia
Millions of livestock from Somalia have been shipped to Saudi Arabia for the annual Muslim pilgrimage to the holy city of Mecca over many decades to feed some two million pilgrims from around the world. Livestock export during Hajj season is a lucrative business and is estimated to earn Somali livestock traders up to half a billion dollars a year. But this year, Somalia’s goats and sheep will not join the pilgrimage because Hajj has effectively been cancelled by Saudi authori
COVID-induced khat shortage adds to health problems in Somalia
Abdirahman Hussein: Reuters
MOGADISHU (Reuters) - In the sweltering seaside port of Mogadishu, Sharif Ahmed tried to attack his relatives and neighbors, resulting in an emergency trip to a psychiatric hospital in handcuffs. It is not the endless civil war making the 22-year-old restless, but withdrawal from the narcotic leaf khat that he has been chewing on since he was 15. Somalia is a major market for khat, which is grown in neighbouring Kenya's fertile central highlands a
LiveNEWS/AFRICAEthiopia's Abiy hails 'historic' start of disputed dam filling
Ethiopian PM said early filling of the massive dam was completed without 'causing harm to anyone'. Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has hailed the "historic" early filling of the massive dam on the Blue Nile River that has stoked tensions with downstream countries Egypt and Sudan. Addis Ababa had long said it planned to begin filling the dam's reservoir this month, in the middle of its rainy season, drawing objections from Cairo and Khartoum who wanted to first reach a tri
Ethiopian cargo plane catches fire in China
All crew members exited safely from the plane, that caught fire at Shanghai International Airport soon after landing An Ethiopian Airlines plane was damaged in a fire accident in China on Wednesday, local media reported. A Boeing 777 ET-ARH cargo plane caught fire at the Shanghai Pudong International Airport in the afternoon (local time), an English-language Chinese newspaper the Global Times reported. The report said the fire was put out at 5:01 p.m. local time (0901GMT). A
Ethiopia says first year of Nile mega-dam filling 'achieved'
Addis Ababa (AFP) - Ethiopia said Tuesday that its first-year target has been reached for filling a mega-dam on the Blue Nile River that has stoked tensions with downstream neighbours Egypt and Sudan. The announcement from Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed's office indicated enough water had accumulated to enable Ethiopia to test the dam's first two turbines -- an important milestone on the way toward actually producing energy. But it risked drawing the ire of both Cairo and Khartoum
Ethiopia’s COVID-19 cases top 10,000
Ethiopia on Monday reported 704 new COVID-19 cases, taking its total tally to 10,207. The East African country now becomes the eleventh country on the continent to surpass the 10,000 mark, as new daily infections continue to surge upwards. “COVID-19 in Ethiopia is showing a sharp rise with the largest number of 704 cases reported in 24 hours yesterday. Once again, I urge everyone to follow the simple guidelines CONSISTENTLY to protect yourself, your family and community,” sai
Turkey urges Ethiopia to close FETO-linked schools
FETO schools are only problem that interferes in excellent bilateral relations, says Ankara’s ambassador in Addis Ababa Turkey's ambassador to Ethiopia on Wednesday urged the Ethiopian government to consider the schools linked to the Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETO) as "a security threat" that poses a problem in bilateral relations. The remarks by Yaprak Alp came in a gathering of the representatives of Turkish agencies and guests held in the capital Addis Ababa to mark
